Sharon Osbourne has harsh words — and an obscene gesture — for those involvedin her firing from The Talk .
The topic — as well as other ups and downs she’s endured during her time inthe spotlight as a TV host, reality star and manager — is the subject of a FoxNation docuseries titled, _Sharon Osbourne: To Hell & Back _which debutsMonday. Osbourne gets real with Yahoo Entertainment about being cut from theEmmy-winning CBS daytime talk show after 11 seasons amid a racism controversy,and says she’ll probably never work again in the US after being what she deems”canceled.” She and husband Ozzy recently announced they’re moving back totheir native England.
“I was thinking to myself: This is gonna be it,” she recalls of her March 2021firing. “Over 50 years working in this industry and this is going to be it.This is it. I’m gonna go out as a racist? I found it so heartbreaking. And itwas like: Why, why did this happen? Why? “
While retelling her side of the story in the four-part doc — about defendingher friend Piers Morgan after he accused Meghan Markle of fabricatingallegations of racism from within the British royal family — The Osbournes_alum is at her most candid. She fires off f-bombs at those she says wrongedher, literally gives the finger to CBS and reminds us that the network isimperfect, citing, in explicit terms, former CEO Les Moonves (and husband ofher former _The Talk co-host Julie Chen)’s sexual misconduct scandal. Shetells us all she has left is her truth having lost her job and credibilitywhen CBS’s internal investigation determined her behavior “did not align with[company] value.”
“Let’s be truthful about this: They destroyed my credibility in America,” shesays. “Let’s be really truthful. It’s like: I have nothing to be afraid of.Their allegations were wrong and were twisted and distorted.”
Osbourne, who says she wasn’t repentant enough for the network, continues, “Weweren’t dealing with a company that runs, you know, religious programming.This company is like every other — ruthless — and will do whatever they haveto do to not have any stain on their network [don’t want] anything that’sgoing to rock the boat…”
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Asked if she considered suing CBS, she tells us, “Sure I could have. But do Iwant to waste two, three years of my life on them? No, I don’t want to dothat. For what?” She also scoffs as reports she left the network with apayout. She says she got “nothing… a ‘see ya.’ It was like in the movies whenpeople get let go [and] you take out your box full of stuff. That was it.”
The boat was rocked when Osbourne backed Morgan who suggested Markle song inher infamous Oprah Winfrey interview. The Markle-Prince Harry interview alsoaired on CBS, with the network investing a lot of money into it. The next day,Osbourne’s co-hosts Sheryl Underwood and Elaine Welteroth accused her on-airof unconscious racism, which Osbourne claimed show producers and CBSexecutives put them up to. Welteroth, who later left the show, and herhairstylist later filed complaints alleging a “racially insensitive andhostile environment” on the set, leading to the show going on hiatus so CBScould conduct an internal investigation. During that time, Leah Remini, a co-host of Osbourne’s in Season 1, Osbourne claimed used derogatory languagetoward co-host Sara Gilbert, who is a lesbian, and Chen, who is of Chinesedescent. Osbourne maintained she wasn’t racist and denied using slurs againstChen.
Osbourne invited Underwood and Welteroth to appear in her doc, but theydeclined. She is clearly hurt by what she views as Underwood’s betrayal,having considered her a close friend as they worked side-by-side for 10seasons. The doc details that friendship, talking about Underwood visitingOsbourne in the UK and referring to herself as “the Black Osbourne” in a 2018podcast interview with the Osbourne family. While Underwood recently said shemissed Osbourne, Osbourne tells us she’ll never makeup with her.
“Never. No. Never ever,” she replies. “Why? Why would I? I worked withsomebody for all those years, sat beside her, traveled the world with her,laughed, cried with her. No, because she’s not a friend.”
Sheryl Underwood and Sharon Osbourne present together at the 2014 Daytime EmmyAwards. (Photo: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
For the record, Osbourne remains friends with former co-host Carrie Ann Inaba,who defends her in the doc, as well as Amanda Kloots, who remains on the showwith Underwood and three new co-hosts. “Mrs. O” is also pals with Gilbert, whoshe speaks with often, and says any comments she made about her were notmalicious.
“The thing was, I would say those comments on the air to Sara,” she says.”That’s how stupid they are. That’s how bloody stupid. It’s something betweenSara and me.”
Asked if she’s spoken to Remini, who surfaced the claims, she says, “No, but Iwouldn’t because she frightens me. Because she’s cray-cray… So I would _never_talk to her.”
The doc was made by Osbourne’s son Jack’s production company. He’s in it aswell as Ozzy, daughter Kelly and Osbourne’s friends, who talk about how deeplyhurt she was by the racist allegations. She’s suffered depression in theaftermath, undergoing ketamine therapy, with Jack saying she’s still “fragile”from it.
Osbourne says she was bothered her family was dragged into the “absoluteinsanity” of it all. Not only did she get death threats — leading to herhiring security — but the trolling extended to her family.
“It didn’t hurt me about me. I know what I am,” she says. “But when theystarted on my kids and my husband, it was like — now this is ridiculous. Nowthis is absolute insanity. And that got me really, really angry.”
Sharon Osbourne talks to Yahoo Entertainment about her four-part Fox Nationdocuseries calld Sharon Osbourne: To Hell & Back. It debuts on Sept. 26.(Photo: Fox Nation)
Even her pets got death threats, she says. “They gonna cut their throats? It’slike: You idiots. You morons out there. But these morons can affect you.Unfortunately, it’s the world we live in.”
This whole experience is partially behind her and Ozzy’s recent announcementthat they’re moving back to England from LA, which has been their home basefor 30 years. He’s called “school shootings and massacres” in the US for themove, while she’s said she also doesn’t feel safe. But the UK is also wherethe work is amid The Talk fallout. Earlier this year, Osbourne joined Morganon his UK TalkTV show, which is also, confusingly, named The Talk. She andOzzy will also be making a BBC reality show, Home to Roost , about theirmove back to the English countryside, where they’ve kept a home. It’s alsowhere Osbourne wants to grow old with the Prince of Darkness.
“I mean, look, [England is] where I was born,” she says. “It’s my home. I’vealways been proud to be British. I’ve never ever been one of these people thatwent to America and then had a Mid-Atlantic accent. I’ve always stayed true towho I am. And it’s just works out for us that way right now [to return].”
After all, “I’m also working on Ozzy’s movie, which is coming out through SonyPictures, and I’ve got so many things that I’m doing,” she says, citing Ozzy’sfirst No. 1 on Billboard’s top album chart this week. “And I can do it fromanywhere. I don’t need to be in LA”
Besides, “I don’t think anyone will ever take me back in America,” Osbournesays a year-and-a-half later after the axing. “I don’t think they will.”
The four part docuseries, ** Sharon Osbourne: To Hell & Back,**premieres Monday on Fox Nation.